THE BLUE ROOM. To 24 May.
Tour
THE BLUE ROOM
by David Hare: freely adapted from Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde
Richmond Theatre until Saturday 15th February then tour to 24 May 2003.
Runs 2 hr15min One interval
TICKETS: 020 8940 0088
Review: Emma Dunford 10 February
First class acting in a first class play, but let down by awkward direction.The twenty-first century may be a lot more liberal minded than the early Twentieth Century - when Arthur Schnitzler’s play La Ronde, from which David Hare’s sententious play has been adapted, closed after the actors were thrown into prison for moral misconduct – but amidst the excellent acting and the candid nakedness, there was something lacking in The Blue Room's direction that made the play disappointingly stale.
The exciting thing about David Hare’s work is its simple, natural way of being thought-provoking. He raises important issues whilst at the same time trying not to show bias – subtly exhibiting all sides of the coin. So, The Blue Room demonstrates, quite brutally in places, the fact that sex is fundamental to love. While lust and love are both ephemeral commodities, sex will always be the kick-start to life, no matter where you stand on society’s hierarchical ladder.
It is a play about sexual manners and what different people want from their sexual liaisons. Jason Connery and Tracy Shaw play a sequence of distinguishable characters, starting with a taxi-driver and a prostitute and finishing with the same prostitute and an inflated aristocrat. Their acting is persuasive and dynamic; especially Tracy’s who delves into every role, giving each character something unique, other than a changed accent or costume.
Indeed it is not the acting that makes the evening slightly stolid, but the fact that each scene lasts only five to ten minutes while scene changes last about half as long: set and props are so intricate that setting each scene up loses pace and slickness. Yet the high-quality acting means the set is really superfluous to the drama on the stage.
Flashing lights indicating how long sexual intercourse lasts for each couple soon lose any humour, doing nothing to enhance the fact that sex, whilst distinct on every occasion, always comes down to the same primary instinct.
There's no reason the play couldn't achieve the same acclaim it received in 1998, but cogent acting is not all what it takes to make a show wholly engaging. It's worth going to see The Blue Room but don’t expect to be blown away. By the end of the second half the play may have achieved its intended full circle, but a bit more variety and vicissitude in each scene would have given this circle the dynamism it definitely needed.
The Girl, The Au Pair, The Married Woman, The Model, The Actress: Tracy Shaw
The Cab Driver, The Student, The Politician, The Playwright, The Aristocrat: Jason Connery
Director: Joe Harmston
Designer: Simon Scullion
Lighting: Robin Carter
Sound: Ian Horrocks-Taylor
Composer/Musician: Andrew Whelan
Costume: Nicholas Ball
Tour:
17 - 22 February, Dartford, Orchard
24 Feb - 1 March, Guildford, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
3 - 8 March, Lincoln, Theatre Royal
10 - 15 March, Cardiff, New Theatre
17 - 22 March, Eastbourne, Devonshire Park Theatre
24 - 29 March ,Londonderry, Millennium Forum
31 March - 5 April, Cork, Everyman Palace
7 - 12 April, Brighton, Theatre Royal
14 - 19 April, Milton Keynes, Milton Keynes Theatre
21 - 26 April, Edinburgh, King's Theatre
28 April - 3 May, Wolverhampton, Grand Theatre
5 - 10 May, Stoke, Regent Theatre
12 - 17 May, Darlington, Civic Theatre
19 - 24 May, Salford, The Lowry
2003-02-12 01:08:07